NEW YORK — ESPN has been attacked by President Donald Trump and Republican critics for its alleged liberal bias. The network's new president, Jimmy Pitaro counters that ESPN is "absolutely not a political organization." Moving forward, Pitaro wants ESPN's coverage to be "fair" and "balanced" — echoing the old rallying cry of Fox News.

If there's an "intersection" between sports and politics, ESPN will cover it, Pitaro told Sporting News during a one-on-one interview this week, but in a politically divided country, ESPN will focus on what it does best: sports.

"Our focus is on covering the news in an exemplary fashion. To be fair, balanced and making sure we have the facts right," he told SN.

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Pitaro made his remarks to SN after leading his first "upfront" presentation to media buyers who control billions of advertising dollars. He was named ESPN's president on March 5.

The meeting was Pitaro's grand entrance on Madison Avenue. With every word and gesture, he communicated that a re-energized ESPN is putting its annus horribilis behind it and getting back to business.

It's no exaggeration to say ESPN struggled through the worst year in its 38-year history in 2017. The self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader in Sports" slashed hundreds of jobs in two separate layoffs. Millions of customers continued to cut the cord, reducing ESPN's footprint to about 86 million homes, down from 100 million in 2011. To the surprise of ESPN executives in Bristol, Conn., the network found itself a political football in the liberals-vs.-conservatives culture wars.

ESPN anchor Jemele Hill tweeted in September that Trump was a "white supremacist"; the White House deemed the tweet a "fireable offense." Trump demanded an apology from ESPN, tweeting:

ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!

To top off a tumultuous year, ESPN president John Skipper suddenly resigned Dec. 18. He later cited a cocaine addiction and a related extortion plot as his reasons for leaving.

The Trump feud, along with incidents such as pulling announcer Robert Lee off a Virginia college football game after race riots in Charlottesville, Va., because of his name's resemblance to the Confederate general, opened the door for critics like Clay Travis and Jason Whitlock to paint ESPN as a left-wing "MSESPN" that's more interested in political correctness than sports.

ESPN tightened its social media guidelines in November in response to Hill and others' tweets. Employees were warned to avoid "overt partisanship" or anything that would "embroil the company in unwanted controversy." In January, though, new hire Katie Nolan called Trump a "f—ing stupid person" on the "Desus & Mero" late-night show.

Earlier this year, Hill and co-host Michael Smith left "The Six," the hip name for their version of the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter," for ESPN's Undefeated website. The two were unhappy with management-mandated changes to the program. Hill later said her exit was her idea. "Deep down I knew it wasn’t my calling," she said.

ESPN this month named Sage Steele and Kevin Negandhi as Hill and Smith's permanent replacements.

Steele was was one of the few, if only, on-air personalities at ESPN to criticize NFL players kneeling for social justice during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The self-proclaimed "Army brat" blasted Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans in particular for refusing to stand for "The Star-Spangled Banner." She tweeted Evans a picture of a grieving family member kneeling in prayer at a military cemetery.

With the aggressive, hands-on Pitaro now in charge, it looks as though ESPN is trying to distance itself from politics as much as possible.

During an interview with Refinery29, Steele indicated many at the network have gotten the memo about steering clear of it on-air. “We’re all afraid to comment on things in general these days because you don’t want anyone to take it the wrong way," she said.

"I don’t even know what ('woke') means, much less how it relates to what we were talking about. That, in my opinion, was a very misleading headline relative to the intention of the show," said Greenberg.

Indeed, "Get Up" has avoided hot-button topics that could potentially turn off viewers at either end of the political spectrum. Greenberg has tried hard to present the funny, inspirational stories that show the beauty of sports, rather than focusing on social issues. "We are a sports show first, last and always," Greenberg said.

During a post-upfront meeting with the press, Pitaro pointed out several things he regards as positives regarding ESPN. In particular, he proudly referenced the network's double-digit ratings increases for NBA regular-season and playoff games.

Pitaro is also excited about the new "Monday Night Football" team of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, Booger McFarland and Lisa Salters. Additionally on the NFL front: ESPN retained its rights to telecast a wild-card game despite speculation it would lose them to rival Fox Sports.

A new deal with the UFC should help bring in younger viewers, Pirtaro added. "Combat sports in general is interesting to us," he said.

ESPN's conservative critics don't forgive or forget easily, though, even if Trump may have stopped going after the network the way he goes after The New York Times, CNN and other mainstream news outlets. Take former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In 2015, she attacked ESPN as a "journalistic embarrassment" for firing conservative former major league pitcher Curt Schilling. "Your intolerant PC police are running amok and making a joke out of you!" wrote Palin.

This month, Palin gleefully noted a Breitbart story reporting ESPN had lost 500,000 subscribers alone in April.